RESOURCES

Designing your sheep operation to match your resources will save you a lot of headaches down the road.  The size of your farm and your land base would be the most obvious resource.  If you have 10 acres, the size of your flock is going to be a lot less then if you have 200 acres.  Many factors determine how many sheep a farm will support, but a real rough rule of thumb is 5 ewes per acre of productive pasture or meadowland.

Barns are always nice, but sheep don’t need to be locked up in a barn all winter.  Really all they need is an area where they can get under cover and out of the wind.  A three sided shed with a roof will provide adequate protection for them.  However, if you want to shear them in the winter or lamb them in the winter, a totally enclosed barn is necessary.

Money may be a concern.  There is going to be an initial capitol cost to start any size operation.  And, there will be operating cost associated with your operation.  If your operation is profitable, it should cover the operating cost and perhaps pay back some of the capital cost.  But, be forewarned that it takes a good manager to make a profit with sheep in the Northeast.  We will look closer at costs and income when we get to budgets.

Probably the most important and most over looked resource is time.  How much time do you have to devote to a sheep operation?  Unfortunately this is somewhat of a nebulous figure and it will vary from farmer to farmer.  It will also be different at different times of the year, especially at lambing.  In a study done in Vermont in 1976 (Pelsue, N.H., and D. B. Conable, 1978), the median time input by Vermont sheep farmers was about 4 hours per week.  That figure jumped to 8.2 hours per week during lambing.  Keep in mind that Vermont’s average flock size is somewhere between 10 and 20 ewes.